BMC elections: BJP's historic win in Mumbai, Thackeray brothers' dominance ends

 Mumbai (The Uttam Hindu): Counting of votes is underway for Maharashtra's 29 municipal corporations, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Trends as of noon have shown the BJP-led alliance taking the lead. The Mahayuti (grand alliance) has surpassed the majority mark in the BMC elections. However, trends so far have shown a disappointing performance for the parties of Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray.

The Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the single largest force in the BMC elections, with its alliance gaining a decisive lead, according to Election Commission trends as of Friday afternoon. Mahayuti candidates led in a total of 119 wards, with the BJP leading in 88 and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena faction in 31.

However, the combined strength of the 'Thackeray Brothers' fell short of expectations. Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT) was ahead in 64 wards, while Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) was ahead in just six wards. Despite efforts at political unity, both parties lagged far behind the BJP alliance. Apart from Mumbai, trends across the state were in favour of the BJP-led alliance. In the 29 municipal corporations, the BJP was ahead in 909 wards, while its ally Shiv Sena was ahead in 237 wards.

Pune emerged as another key battleground, where two rival factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) (the Ajit Pawar faction and the Sharad Pawar faction) joined forces for the municipal elections. The results in Pune are being seen as a test of the alliance's electoral viability at the grassroots level. Maharashtra government minister Nitesh Rane wrote on the social media platform 'X' amid the counting of votes, "Whoever speaks for Hindu interests will rule Maharashtra. Jai Shri Ram."

Voting took place for a total of 2,869 seats across 893 wards in 29 municipal bodies in Maharashtra. Voters decided the political fate of 15,931 candidates, including nearly 1,700 in Mumbai alone.